Towards a fair electoral system in Iraq by taking advantage of the Japanese experience

Abdulaziz Aliwi al-Issawi

Introduction
It is no longer feasible to talk about the application of an electoral system that does not guarantee results in Iraq after the tremors that have hit the political arena in recent years, as it has become necessary to search for an electoral system that is commensurate with the Iraqi situation in terms of its age, complexity and the nature of the thinking of the parties and forces participating in it because politics is the art of the possible, and elections are an integral part of the political process in Iraq, which necessitates dealing with the electoral process and everything related to it, including its law with realism away from unproductive idealism, or excessive pessimism.
It is necessary to find electoral rules capable of moving Iraq towards stability when searching for the most appropriate electoral system, albeit gradually because of the influence that elections have on the political process; because the forces and parties will interact with the outputs of the electoral process if there is an effective electoral system, albeit relatively, as is the case in Japan, which moved from the single-vote system to the mixed system amid the support of parties, even those that found themselves losing after this transition.
The adaptation of the parties to any new electoral system is significant because this can ensure political stability following any elections and thus not repeat the experience of the year of instability that followed the 2021 elections.
The complexity of the electoral system between (2005-2021) prompted us to think about reconsidering the applied electoral systems to preserve their advantages and avoid their disadvantages to reach a system that contains standards of integrity, justice, and transparency commensurate with the situation in Iraq.
It is necessary to mention here the three tips given by Robert Dahl in his book (on democracy) to the countries that suffer from the instability of their electoral systems, the first of which is to speed up the replacement of the electoral system if these countries find that their electoral system does not meet their needs. The second is to search for an electoral system commensurate with the peculiarities of these historical, intellectual, and social countries. At the same time, the third piece of advice indicates the need to carefully study all available alternatives by using experts in the field of electoral systems, calling for the electoral system to be easy and understandable by everyone, and not far away from innovation, it lends itself to everyone; for access to Legislative power.
The researcher of the most suitable electoral system for Iraq finds himself in need of taking the three tips in the presence of a desire to replace the electoral system that suits the peculiarities of Iraq and with the study of all available alternatives.
After Iraq experimented with the proportional representation and one non-transferable vote systems, it became necessary to examine the advantages of the two systems to benefit from them and to avoid the disadvantages of proportional representation and one non-transferable vote; to reach the appropriate electoral system for Iraq, taking advantage of the Japanese electoral experience, which became more stable after the transition from the one non-transferable vote system to the parallel mixed system.